


Beauty Queen

by rhiannonhero



Category: Boys for Pele Songs - Tori Amos
Genre: Gen, bfp songs: beauty queen, boys for pele songs, tori amos - freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-09
Updated: 2005-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-05 23:39:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhiannonhero/pseuds/rhiannonhero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-XfOGC7pc4">Beauty Queen</a>.  The song is featured at that link as the introduction to the song "Horses", as is usual, but I separated them into two different stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beauty Queen

The light flickered over head, casting vibrating shadows over the bathroom sinks and tile floor. The clinking of glasses and the murmur of voices sounded dull and heavy through the dark wooden door separating the bathroom from the bar.

I stood staring in the mirror, my reflection a pale lavender ghost, and the tube of verve-shade red shaking in my hand. My eyes sat together too closely, and if I blurred my eyes a little, the gray light illuminating the sharp edge of my brow, and darkening the hollows of my cheeks gave me a glimpse of the hag that I would one day become.

The sound of elbows banging against metal and the ensuing giggles drifted from the bathroom stall behind me and drew my attention away from the drunken study of my own skewed and smeared features.

They'd entered the stall together, two young girls with legs like does, and lips iced with red joy. They'd been shifting and giggling and dropping their purses on the floor behind the closed door for over five minutes.

"Careful, you're going to drop it!" One of them hissed as the other fumbled and tripped over her own laughter. "Here give it to me!"

And the soft plop as it fell in the toilet. A gale of laughter soared over the top of the stall, followed by a sharp curse and a soft slap. "You stupid, whore. You dropped it in the fucking loo."

"Fuck you," still laughing breathlessly. "I'm not a whore."

"Fish it out," the voice of that one was cigarette heavy and cruel. "Come on, fish it the fuck out."

The swish of water, and dripping, covered all the while with that incessant laughter from the one that didn't seem too bright.

"Well, fuck."

I thought that summed it up. Back in the mirror, my black eyes were ringed with dark lines, smeared earlier that night on purpose, and later with unexpected tears. I looked uglier than I'd imagined.

The stall door swung open, and the taller one, dark hair hanging in a long fold over her face, held a cigarette in one hand, unlit, and propped up her still laughing friend in the other. "Christ, wash your hands," she said, steering her toward the sink, propping her up there and then returning to the stall for their purses, left abandoned on the floor.

The laughing one peered at me in the mirror, suddenly quiet, eyes wide, and not a smirk anywhere to be found. Her mouth slowly softened into a rounded O. We held one another's gaze until her friend appeared at her elbow. "Wash your goddamn hands. You put them in the toilet, you idiot."

She held my eyes as she whispered in reply, "Because you told me to."

Her friend turned on the spigot, and thrust the laughing girl's hands under the water. Without looking away from me, the laughing girl, mouth still open, let her friend wash her hands.

"Come on, let's go."

She turned slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on my face. She whispered, "Your lipstick looks nice."

 

THE END


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